Sometimes it makes no sense to buy new chairs at an inflated price. Often, exquisite designer furniture is created from old blanks restored beyond recognition. Do-it-yourself restoration of chairs will help to "breathe" a second life into the design of the apartment with the help of the following instructions and advice from experienced craftsmen. Ultimately, you will get a durable and comfortable product, knowing how to repair it. The updated Soviet chair will become a real asset of the home interior.
Even high-quality furniture elements are subject to mechanical damage and surface abrasion. Often, through our fault, favorite pieces of home furniture become unsuitable for further use. The legs and back suffer the most - other parts are more or less unharmed. First-class pouffes and an armchair are often twisted and decorated from old chairs with their own hands. It costs a lot of money when ordering a service from a professional designer to restore a chair.
At home, without the help of a professional carpenter, you can restore wooden chairs with a back and stools - it is not necessary to have extensive experience in arts and crafts. It is enough to see at least once how you can make the constriction of the soft part. What you see will help you navigate how long the restoration of your chair will take.
The experience gained will help in the future to experiment with more complex structures(entrance hall, sofa, wardrobe, table, bed, chest of drawers and other wooden attributes of the house). A completely unnecessary and aged thing can be turned into a real functional element of decor. All this can be done from an old chair in a new way.
Craftsmen know different ways to restore furniture - alteration of a chair and restoration of a stool depend on the degree of damage to the parts. The most common chair failures are:
- leg damage, loose back, loose seat, other flaws in wooden parts;
- deterioration of the upholstery of old furniture;
- severe damage to paintwork.
The repair scheme should be selected depending on the presence of certain problem areas. In many cases, it is enough to fasten the parts with new fittings. The same renewal trend extends to worn upholstery. Worn-out fabric and foam rubber must be replaced with new elements: sheathed with a new flap. In fact, there are no antique chairs unsuitable for restoration, even if your grandmother painted them. In the following master class, you will learn how to update old chair and how to tastefully paint its surface.
Upholstered chairs “Before and After”
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Refreshing the color and design of old wood
The complete or partial transformation of a restored chair directly depends on the availability of certain tools and materials. Not many people know how to properly restore old home chairs. In the process of restoration kitchen furniture you can not do without a drill (screwdriver), a small hammer, two different types screwdrivers, scissors, brushes, clamps, a stapler with mounting brackets, sandpaper, a small mallet and scissors. As the last component you will need:
- self-tapping screws;
- glue for wood;
- foam pillow;
- varnish-coloring agents;
- piece of upholstery fabric.
At the first stage of repair, the surface should be restored. Furniture is cleaned of dust, thoroughly wiped with a wet sponge. Next, the seat and back of the case are removed and the components are disassembled. Sometimes it needs to be fixed. Use a rubber mallet instead of a metal mallet to avoid damaging the parts.
If the chair is assembled with screws, the structure is disassembled without much effort with your own hands. It is enough to unscrew them for complete dismantling. You need to fold them in such a way that you do not mix them up later. Use a damp cloth to clean up the remaining epoxy, then carefully scrape off with an old dull knife. The cleaned frame is left to dry for a while. Only then is the structure restored and redone.
To remove epoxy in difficult places, steam jet pressure should be used instead of water. In the absence of a special device, a proven “old-fashioned” method is used to perform a delicate procedure - the use of a hose with a tip that is put on the spout of the kettle to transform the tree.
Changing the look of furniture: the best example
The step-by-step process of restoring an old chair should be carried out as follows:
- Processing with putty from all kinds of chips and cracks.
- Sanding wood with different types of sandpaper (first coarse-grained, then fine-grained sheet).
- Inspection of the complete repaired structure (correction of reeling by gluing and other methods).
- Seat restoration (upholstered or hard seat).
- Decorating the surface of the base of a wooden chair (varnishing or painting).
Removing old varnish Speeds up the process of removing the old layer Sander You can securely fix the legs with wooden scarves. You will also need studs with nuts and washers. Polishing and painting is best done outdoors.
We stretch the upholstery, fixing it with a construction stapler at a distance of no more than 1–2 centimeters. Depending on the shape, the fabric at the corners can be fixed like this. Another way to fix the fabric at the corners
How to refurbish and paint an old wooden chair
Do-it-yourself restoration of old chairs is aimed not only at updating the frame. The upholstery of an antique chair can be decorated different ways do it yourself:
- Fabric constriction of the soft part or a removable top cover.
- Updating the back with a decoupage pattern for antique chairs.
- Restoration of the back with durable textiles (patch of denim, jute, tapestry, jacquard or velor).
- Additional decoration for upholstery - macrame.
- Too soft back straps (you need to remove the old upholstery, change it to a simple grid with square cells).
There are a lot of photos and videos on the web. different ideas craftsmen who restore furniture. The new back of an old furniture attribute can be decorated with a hand-sewn fabric cover. Individual capes and covers can be changed based on the interchangeable design of other attributes of the house. Each master decides for himself what can be done using old wooden chairs. Choosing what to paint, you will restore the product in an individual style.
An old chair inherited from a grandmother, with worn upholstery, peeling varnish, can become a pearl of the interior if you put your hands on it. To cope with this task, you need to familiarize yourself with the technique of restoration work, arm yourself necessary tools and be patient. Consider the stages of turning a used piece of furniture into a chic rarity, dear to the heart as a memory of loved ones.
Ways
There are various approaches to renovating old furniture. Restoration is a classic approach that involves restoring the original appearance of an object with all the previous characteristics. This method is used if you need to restore a valuable piece of furniture in its original form. A fairly complex technique is assumed here, which will require the use of special-purpose chemicals to restore the coating, carpentry work to eliminate functional malfunctions, it may be necessary to replace part of the wood or veneer.
This requires special skills and professional carpentry tools, the acquisition of special types of wood. Full restoration of chairs is justified for collecting purposes or in case of damage to one of the items of an expensive set. This is a rather expensive process, so it is better to entrust it to professionals.
If for certain reasons it is impossible to contact a carpentry restoration workshop, then repairing old chairs can be done at home with your own hands.
It is necessary to start recovery work by sequentially performing the following steps:
- First, we think over the design of the future piece of furniture, how it will look in the interior, what color it should be, what needs to be redone for ease of use.
- Then we disassemble the chair into its component parts, determine the degree of wear of the parts and the need to replace some elements, measure each part.
- After that, we draw up an estimate for consumables according to the size of the parts of the chair, with this list we go to the store and purchase everything you need.
- Finally, we replace worn parts and varnish or paint. If the chair has retained its strength, it is enough to simply repaint it to make a new piece of furniture. You can paint an old peeling highchair in a bright new color and paint it with a simple pattern, which the child will be incredibly happy about.
Instrument preparation
Having determined the degree of deterioration of structural parts, it is necessary to stock up on the necessary tools. Let's try to figure out what is needed for the repair.
To strengthen the frame, you will have to acquire a chisel, wood glue or PVA glue, wooden blocks to replace furniture spikes or spacers. The spikes are used to fasten the frame parts.
If the legs of the chair are loosened, the spikes must be removed, smeared with glue and inserted into the structure, after which the elements must be fixed for several hours. At home, you can use a regular belt for screeding parts.
Chairs can be varnished, stained or painted. To remove the damaged coating, you need to sand the surface of the chair - it is not necessary to completely remove the old layer of paint or varnish, just level it. Here you will need sandpaper of large and small fractions or a grinder. With a complete change in design, it is worth using a special composition that dissolves paint - technical acetone.
After preparing the frame for a new painting, you need to apply a primer for paint - usually it is gray or white. You will need paint and varnish materials. They are selected depending on the conditions of use, whether this household item will be adversely affected by moisture, steam or the sun. Instructions are included with each dye. After getting acquainted with it, choose the right one.
Before varnishing for the preservation of wood, it is treated with stain, wax or oil. These furniture products are available in different colors to match the different colors of natural wood. After covering the frame of a wooden chair with a water-based stain of the desired color, a layer of varnish follows, when using a polymer-based stain, varnish coating is optional.
Next, you have to decide what the seat trim will be. If it is a hard seat, then paint according to the same rules as the frame. If you have to deal with a soft seat, you need to stock up on foam rubber and upholstery fabric. Here a furniture stapler with staples of suitable size will come in handy. The fabric can also be fixed with the help of special furniture nails and a hammer.
When working with a spring block, it may be necessary to replace the springs or the entire block. You need to ask in advance whether these materials are available for repair work or you need to change the strategy and abandon the springs in favor of foam rubber.
Structural disassembly
The connection scheme of the chair is well known, it is not difficult to disassemble the structure yourself. First, the back and rear legs are unscrewed. The assembly of the chair takes place in the reverse order, then all the grooves will fall into place. If the chair is mounted on glued spikes, you need to melt hot water joints - for this, a hot wet cloth is applied several times or a steam generator is used.
Detected cracks are filled with a mixture of sawdust and glue or glued and tightened for fixation until dry. If the stud joints are damaged, new plugs are made to replace the old ones, and to strengthen the side joints, a thorn-groove fastening and gluing are used in them. It is necessary to drill a thin hole to the spike and pour glue into it with a syringe, fix it until it dries. If the legs are inserted into special grooves in the bottom of the chair and the chair wobbles, then the legs are removed and the upper part is wedged, it becomes larger and fits into the groove more tightly.
If there is an update baby chair, in addition to the above, it may be necessary to replace the hinges or the turning mechanism for transformation,. Most wooden highchairs are made up of a large number of parts to ensure the safety of the child. It's a good idea to glue them again with wood glue for strength.
When disassembling a folding chair, it is enough to remove the axial pins connecting the backrest and the seat and unscrew the seat. Chairs on metal frame they are simply unscrewed, for models with cast frames, only the seat and the soft part of the backrest are unscrewed for constriction.
The seat of the chair can be equipped with a spring block. The block itself does not need to be dismantled and torn off from the base, if necessary, replace individual springs.
Recovery process step by step
So, at the first stage, our chair is disassembled, the damage to the structure is eliminated, the old paintwork is removed, and you can start updating directly.
At the second stage, we apply a primer corresponding to the type of material to be painted on the cleaned surface. After it dries, re-treatment with finer sandpaper follows. Then we apply the first layer of paint or varnish and after drying we check - if the base is translucent, we apply one or two more layers.
Each material has its own characteristics when staining. An anti-corrosion primer is applied to the frames of iron chairs with the first layer, after drying, the main color is applied, and if the paint is transparent, then it is applied in stages in two or three layers. When painting metal chairs it is better to use enamels on metal.
The frame of a wooden chair is first treated with wax, applying a little product to a piece of rag and carefully rubbing it into the wood, or brushed with an oil primer. Next, one or more layers of acrylic paint are applied. Such coatings of the new generation are easy to use, have no smell, dry quickly, and are suitable for indoor use.
To restore Viennese chairs, use a varnish coating on a wax base or on a primer.
For plastic chairs, painting is undesirable, since the flexibility of the material will provoke peeling of the paint, it is better to sew covers or pillows from a suitable fabric on them.
Finally, at the last stage, you need to update the upholstery of the soft parts of the chair. After the old upholstery is removed, the foam rubber of the required thickness is cut out according to the shape of the seat base, it can be fixed with glue. The fabric is cut out, taking into account the hem allowance around the foam rubber with plywood.
furniture stapler with reverse side the fabric is first fastened from opposite sides so that it is tightly stretched, then the corners are folded end-to-end, folded along the base and fixed with staples in several places on the reverse side so that the fabric does not bulge. It is better to use a fabric with a floral print or plain. The geometric pattern requires a special arrangement of lines. The drawing may be skewed, so skill is needed here.
When hauling a seat with springs, batting or other dense material is first laid, then a layer of foam rubber. The fabric is cut out and attached using the same technology as with one foam rubber, but here it is important to stretch the upholstery more to smooth out the relief of the springs.
Assembly and finishing
When the chair frame is updated and the soft parts are tightened with new upholstery, all that remains is to assemble the structure. The basic rule is to assemble in the same order as disassembled. The legs and back details must be installed in the same grooves where they were originally, so the design will not lose strength. The plywood on which the seat is attached is usually screwed to the frame; in Viennese chairs, glue acts as a fixative.
Knowing all the stages of chair restoration, it is not difficult to create a stylish and unique object with the help of finishing from an unattractive piece of furniture. Just by painting the chairs in pink, blue, pistachio colors, you can get a bright color accent of the interior in the fusion style.
When updating old chairs, decoupage technique is used. This operation is performed using glue, varnish and a pattern on paper basis, convenient to use and napkins. Paper with the selected pattern is cut or torn into pieces, then these fragments are fixed with glue on the frame and seat, after drying they are varnished. As a result, this piece of furniture is completely transformed and becomes an art object.
V modern interiors designers often use one or two antique items. For this purpose, chairs of ancient designs are required. First, they are painted with white paint, then a thin translucent layer of gold, bronze or silver paint is applied to the entire chair or its individual parts, depending on the environment and the finish of the entire interior. The final step is a layer of craquelure varnish. It creates small cracks throughout the coating, giving a luxurious touch of antiquity.
Such chairs can be finished in the Empire style. The frame, painted white, is painted with gold paint on the carving, on smooth elements you can copy a suitable pattern with a pencil and paint on this pattern with gold paint. The seat in this case is covered with a fabric with a sheen - satin, brocade, velvet. The composition is very effective.
Many things lose their attractive appearance over time, so they need to be updated. You can make some effort to restore the furniture and give it an amazing look. Especially often people remake old chairs. There are many ways to restore them.
Kinds
To update the old chair yourself, you need to decide on the type of restoration. There are several ways to help restore outdated furniture. To update wooden products or chipboard surfaces, you can apply the following methods:
- Decoupage- this is the possibility of decorating furniture by gluing some motifs or pictures cut out of paper onto it. To preserve the updated surface of the object, a special varnish is used that protects the paper from external influences. Decoupage allows you to choose an interesting pattern and transfer it to old furniture thus updating the interior.
- Adhesive tape or film helps to update old furniture without much effort. Decorative self-adhesive film may have a design that imitates a natural stone, wood, leather and ceramics. She is not afraid of water, temperature changes and direct sunlight. With its help, you can completely transform a faded chair.
- Art painting- This is a way of decorating objects with various colors. There are several types of artistic painting: Khokhloma, Zhostovo, Gzhel and Mezen painting. But for restoration by this method, skill and care are needed.
- Craquelure- a technique for creating a visually aged tree. Cracks form on the coating, through which the main tone is visible. To get this result, use a special plaster, varnish or paint.
The technique itself does not require serious preparation and accuracy of application.
- Painting- the easiest type of restoration, for which it is only necessary to clean the product well. The lacquer coating will keep the attractiveness of the chair for a long time.
- lamination- a method that uses decorated paper that is glued to the surface of the chair using synthetically molten resin.
- Veneering- is a renovation of furniture with a thin layer of wood, which is glued to the surface using a one- or two-component composition. And to give the veneer aesthetics, you can cover it with varnish or wax.
In addition to updating the aesthetic appearance of the chair, sometimes more serious intervention may be required - it may be necessary to replace or repair a broken part of the structure. In some cases, it is enough to only restore the connecting parts, while in others it is necessary to completely replace the part.
To restore a wooden or metal chair, it may be necessary to replace the old upholstery. To do this, it is necessary to prepare materials that will help restore the product. Upholstery requires precision and precision, combined with proficiency with tools.
How to disassemble yourself?
Disassembling a chair with your own hands is not difficult, since its design is known to almost everyone. First you need to unscrew the back, and then the legs. And they assemble the product in the reverse order so that all the grooves take their places. If the high chair is fixed with glued spikes, the attachment points are moistened with hot water or doused with steam from a steam generator.
If on wooden structure there are cracks, then they are filled with a mixture of glue and sawdust or glued and clamped until they are completely fixed. In case of damage to the spike fasteners, the old plugs are replaced, and the side joints are glued together. To do this, make a small hole, pour glue into it and wait until it dries.
If the old chair staggers, then it is necessary to remove the legs from the special grooves and wedge their upper part. Due to this, they increase and better keep in the grooves.
Updating a highchair follows the same principle as an adult, but sometimes it needs to replace hinges or rotary mechanism. Typically, children's designs consist of many parts that are designed to secure the position of the child. For greater strength, all connecting points must be glued.
To disassemble the folding chair, it is enough to remove the axial pins that connect the back and seat, and then remove the seat. Metal-based structures are easier to disassemble - you need to unscrew the seat and the soft part of the back.
If the seat of the chair is installed on a spring block, then it must be replaced with new springs. It is not necessary to remove the entire block for this.
Recovery process step by step
After disassembling the structure and restoring damaged parts, it is necessary to remove the old paintwork. After that, the main stage of restoration begins.
On the cleaned surface of the chair, a primer is first applied, which completely matches the color of the product. After waiting for complete drying, the primer is cleaned with sandpaper to obtain a thin layer of coating. After that, the product is covered with paint or varnish, waiting for it to dry and another layer is applied.
Each material is painted in a special way. For example, an anti-corrosion agent is first applied to the metal frame, after complete drying, it is covered with the main color. Transparent varnish is applied in several stages, and if a coloring composition is used, then it is better to resort to metal enamel.
wooden frame first treated with wax, carefully distributing it over all areas. Instead of wax, you can use an oil primer, which is applied with a brush. Then the product is covered with several layers of acrylic paint. These recovery steps allow you to quickly and easily renew your chair without the need for special protective masks and gloves.
It is highly undesirable to paint plastic chairs, because plastic tends to bend, and this will lead to cracking and peeling of the paint. Therefore, it is a priority for them to sew covers or pillows.
The last stage of the update consists of creating beautiful upholstery. After removing the old upholstery, the base of the seat is cut out of the foam cushion, which is then attached to the surface using glue. For additional fixation, you can use paper clips. Having stretched the fabric well over the entire seat, it is fixed from below with furniture clips. Depending on personal preferences, the fabric may have a bright pattern or no pattern at all.
To remake a seat with springs, the batting is first fixed, and then the foam sheet layer. The fabric is attached according to the same principle as with a single layer of foam rubber, but it is pulled with more emphasis to smooth out the springy relief.
Many people think about what kind of paint is better to paint in order to maintain the effect for a long time. For wooden products, you can use a stain or paint and varnish, and for iron structures - enamel specially designed for metal.
Viennese
To repair Viennese chairs yourself, you first need to assess their general condition. The amount of damage may depend on the operating conditions.
The most important damage that can be assessed at home is instability. This is due to the weakening of the spiked joints. To bring the product back to normal, it is necessary to increase the size of the spike, put the seals on the sides and replace the power bars. After that, the paintwork is replaced and the seat is restored.
To restore an outdated structure, you need to prepare the basic materials and tools. To work, you need to get a hammer, a furniture stapler, a self-tapping screw, paints and varnishes, a solvent, brushes, glue, scissors, cloth and sandpaper.
The renewal process begins with cleaning all surfaces of the product from dirt and dust. After that, the disassembly of the chair begins. First, the seat and back are removed, which are usually held on with screws. Then, step by step, the rest of the details are removed. It is important to check the strength of all connections. If some attachment point is not holding well, then it is not worth disassembling it.
Disassembled elements must be replaced immediately so that no errors occur during the assembly process. All parts are cleaned with sandpaper to thoroughly clean them of old varnish. This is necessary in order to repaint the furniture, the new layer fits perfectly on the chair.
Next, be sure to inspect the places where the elements are glued together. The top of the legs, which are attached in the grooves, must be wrapped with several layers of bandage, smearing each layer with glue. If the leg staggers very strongly, then a hole is made in the end, into which a small wedge is then driven in. This will increase the width of the end, and the leg will hold firmly in the groove.
For tsargo structures with a weakened seam with inside you need to make a hole, and using a syringe, inject an adhesive into it. You can also resort to matches lubricated in glue, and when assembling the chair, insert them into the nest. In this case, the ends must be fitted with great accuracy so that no gaps form between them and the sides.
The assembly of the structure begins with the complete gluing of all spiked joints. Excess glue must be removed with a napkin. The product dries for about a day, and for maximum fixing, you need to put some heavy object on the seat.
To update the seat, you need to get rid of worn upholstery and eliminate all surface imperfections. If it is necessary to change the foam rubber, then on a new foam rubber sheet you need to draw a markup and cut out the part. The fabric with which the seat will be upholstered should be larger than the resulting seat. It is placed close to the surface and secured with paper clips from the back.
The chair itself can be decorated in Provence style. For this everything wooden details painted, and after drying, they are processed with a grinding machine.
To fix the effect, you need to cover the structure with varnish.
Details update
You can decorate the chair different ways. Any materials can be used: paper, fabric, laces, paints, napkins, etc. It all depends on the imagination of the master and on the level of his skill. Naturally, if a person does not know how to work with complex equipment, then you should not resort to it. We need to start with something more understandable.
With the help of sisal
For this method, you can use both a wooden and a metal frame. To work, you will need a large ball of sisal rope, a dense upholstery fabric such as velvet, a stapler, superglue, scissors, nails, a hammer, a pencil and a centimeter tape.
You need to start the repair by removing the old upholstery from the seat and back. Then the back details are wrapped with sisal, smoothly moving to the legs. This should be done in such a way that the rope fits snugly around the part and each subsequent row fits snugly against the previous one. Fix the material with glue.
Having finished winding all the elements, you need to create a decoration on the back. To do this, the rope in several layers in 2-3 rows is wound first between the upper and lower crossbars, and then between the side ones.
Having made a pattern of a new upholstery, you need to fix it on the seat. Small nails or a stapler are suitable for this.
wool yarn
To resort to this option, you will need a design on a metal frame with a mesh back and seat. For work, you need to prepare scissors, multi-colored woolen yarn, a crochet hook, a wooden plank, a screwdriver and screws.
In this case, the mesh plays the role of a canvas, so you need to thread double threads through it in a diagonal direction. In addition, each row can have different colour. You can use two contrasting colors or several shades that are close in tone.
You can strengthen the damaged mesh with a few stitches of yarn. After you need to cut a bar that will repeat the shape of the seat, and fix it with screws.
Decoupage from sewing patterns
This option is well suited for vintage wooden products with a hard seat. For work, you will need patterns from magazines, glue, a brush, acrylic varnish, scissors, fabric, thread and a needle.
In almost every house you can find a few old chairs, appearance which leaves much to be desired. Don't be in a hurry to throw them away. Restoration will help to breathe a second life into an old, but favorite piece of furniture.
Restoration gives the chair a second life and creates unique furniture.
Just a little effort, and old chairs or armchairs will turn into real works of art and will delight their owners for many years.
Give a second life
Restoring chairs with your own hands is not so much a complicated process as painstaking.
Before proceeding with the case, it is necessary to carefully inspect the product. Based on the results of the inspection, it will become clear what to do: just drag the seat of the chair, update the paintwork, or carry out a more serious repair.
If the chair is loosened, then the cause should be sought in the spiked joints. Over time, the wood shrinks, the connecting elements begin to hang out in their nests. To eliminate this and strengthen the structure, it is necessary to increase the size of the spike, seal the sides and replace the power jumpers.
Restoration of a paint and varnish covering will demand smaller efforts. old paint you will have to remove, sand the surface of the parts and cover them with paint or varnish. For high-quality performance of work, the chair must be disassembled: remove the seat, unscrew the back and legs. If the design of the product is complex and has many small parts, then during disassembly, a diagram of the location of each part should be drawn up. This will facilitate the assembly of the chair after the restoration is completed.
The easiest way to update an old chair is to replace the upholstery. Replacing old and worn fabric can change the appearance of furniture beyond recognition. If necessary, it can be performed in any one way or include all of the listed types of work.
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Preparing for recovery
Before starting work, it is necessary to prepare tools and materials. If the chair needs serious repairs, then you will need:
Before restoration, the old chair must be disassembled.
- Screwdriver.
- Screwdrivers.
- Hammer.
- Mallet.
- Clamps.
- Clamps are metal.
- Sandpaper of various grain sizes.
- Construction stapler and staples.
- Acrylic paint and brushes.
- Scissors, pencil or felt-tip pen, cardboard, tailor's centimeter.
- Foam rubber.
- Thick fabric for upholstery.
- Bucket, rag and dishwashing liquid.
The first step towards restoring a chair is to clean it of dust and dirt. To wash it well, you will need warm water, a soft cloth and some dishwashing liquid. This solution will help to quickly clean the chair not only from dirt, but also from part of the old varnish. The washing procedure should be carried out promptly so that the wood does not come into contact with water for long, and then everything must be thoroughly dried.
The next stage of restoration is dismantling. First you need to remove the back and rear legs. The main thing here is to follow the rule: the assembly of the chair must be carried out in the reverse order. Only in this way will all the holes coincide with each other. In addition, all parts and fasteners must be marked. This will also make assembly easier.
Tools for restoring chairs: batting, upholstery fabric, stapler, staples, foam mounting adhesive, cardboard, screwdriver, scissors.
If the heads of the screws that fasten the parts are hidden in the sockets and they are covered with wooden plugs, then they can be removed using a chisel. If it does not work, then you need to use a drill, the diameter of which is equal to the diameter of the plug, and drill it out. The opened screw is turned out with a screwdriver. A drop of technical oil applied to the screw will facilitate the work.
If the chair was fastened with epoxy resin, then removing it will help hot water. Wet a rag or napkin and put it on the place of gluing. Repeat the procedure until the glue is completely softened. Then you need to scrape it off with a knife and dry the parts. Hot steam will help soften the glue in tight joints. To do this, a rubber hose is put on the spout of the kettle, a jet of steam is directed to the connection.
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Processing and assembly of parts
In order to qualitatively restore the chair, it must be carefully examined. All details must be processed with sandpaper. Glue the large cracks found and tighten them with clamps. Glue the smaller ones and secure with paper tape. Excess holes and chips on the parts should be filled with a slurry of glue and small sawdust. You can continue to work only after the glue is completely dry.
To facilitate work with sandpaper, it must be cut into narrow strips and glued to wooden blocks 20-40 mm wide and 300-350 mm long. Paper must be used with different grain sizes. The surface after processing should be even and smooth. A grinder will help to facilitate the work and significantly reduce the processing time.
Be sure to check all connections. If the legs of the chair are inserted directly into the seat and eventually become loose in their nests, then to strengthen them, it is enough to wedge them. At the ends of the upper narrowed parts of the legs, a cut is made and a wedge is driven into it. Thanks to this technique, the end diameter will become larger and it will sit more tightly in the socket, which must be pre-lubricated with glue.
It will be more difficult to restore chairs with crossbars between the legs and drawers under the seat. In such designs, a tenon-groove connection and sizing are used to fasten parts. When the seam weakens, you need to drill a hole with a small diameter from the inside and drop a few drops of glue there with a syringe. When the spike is weakened, it must be strengthened with thin wedges. Matches or wooden chips that are dipped in glue are suitable for this purpose. They need to be hammered into the nest along with the spike.
If the chair is very loose, then in addition to gluing the joints, it is necessary to strengthen the structure with wooden bars. They should be attached with screws to the sides, which are used to connect the inner corners of the frame. Bars and tsargs should be perfectly fitted to each other. Even the smallest gap between them will cause the entire structure to skew.
Now you can begin to assemble the chair frame. All parts must be installed in their places. In order for the adhesive to grab, it is necessary to provide sufficient pressure. Tighten the elements to be glued with clamps or cords. A bucket of water can be placed on the seat. This will provide the necessary pressure. With such a load, the chair must stand for at least 24 hours. Excess glue should be removed immediately with a damp cloth.
Do not rush to throw away old furniture. From a “four-legged friend” battered by life and honed by moths, you can get a real work of art with just a little effort and imagination. Today you will learn how to update an old chair. with my own hands to give freshness and novelty to the home interior.
Method number 1: decorating a chair with paint
Not only a real “old man’s” Soviet chair, but also a wooden “Viennese” and a folding country version are easily transformed with paint.
Coloring technology
To paint old chairs, you will need:
- acrylic paint;
- flat brushes made of synthetics (separately for varnish, paint and putty);
- gloves;
- putty;
- white spirit (for metal);
- lacquer remover (for lacquered models);
- matte varnish or wax;
- fine to medium grit sandpaper.
Restore old chairs according to this scheme:
- The first step is to prepare the furniture for painting: wash, sand with sandpaper. The surface should remain slightly rough.
- It is better to degrease the iron model with white spirit before painting.
- Treat lacquer furniture special tool for removing varnish.
- Mask all cracks and scratches on the surface of the legs and back with furniture putty.
- After that, paint the entire surface of the furniture in 2-3 layers, waiting for the complete drying of each layer. Open the product with varnish.
Interesting! If you want to achieve an interesting worn effect, then initially on separate sections apply a dark shade of paint, and then cover them with wax. Paint the entire area with the desired shade in 2 layers, and then go over the previously marked areas with fine-grained sandpaper to “expose” the dark areas.
- If you have not decided what color to paint the furniture in, then you can not go wrong by choosing a bright white shade. This color is versatile and goes well with all bright upholstery materials.
New! Chalk paints are a newfangled type of colorants that are not yet very common in stores, but we recommend using them because of the bright colors and super-fast drying.
- Use masking tape to paint individual areas of the surface.
Method number 2: seat constriction
Do-it-yourself restoration of old chairs by the method of constriction is the second most common technique after paint.
Interesting! Even if the stool does not have a comfortable soft seat, you can make it yourself.
Tightening process technology
For work you will need:
- dense upholstery fabric;
- furniture stapler;
- screwdriver or screwdriver;
- tape measure;
- self-tapping screws;
- overlocker for processing edges or a sewing machine.
An old upholstered chair is restored in this way:
- Turn the product over, laying it with a seat on the work surface. Using a screwdriver or screwdriver, unscrew the soft part from the frame of the product. If it is screwed not on self-tapping screws, but on nails, then pull them out with pliers.
- Measure the width and length of the seat, add 7 cm to each value, open the part from the new fabric. Finish the edges of the fabric blank on sewing machine or overlock.
- Lay the pattern on your work surface. front side down. Place the seat on it with the wrong side towards you. Make sure that the distance of future bends of the pattern is the same on all sides.
- Bend and fasten two opposite sides of the upholstery fabric to the seat with a stapler. At the same time, slightly stretch the material. The staples of the stapler are fastened in steps of at least 10 cm, and the corners are not yet fixed.
- Do the same with the rest of the sides.
- Lastly, pull the corners into the center of the seat and also secure with staples.
- Install the seat on the frame, fasten again with self-tapping screws. If initially it was held with nails, then it makes sense to replace them with self-tapping screws.
- A soft seat can be decorated with beautiful furniture carnations around the perimeter.
- Choose upholstery so that it matches the style of the stool. So classic jacquard does not look on modern designer furniture, and an old wooden chair with a back and patterns looks strange with geometric print upholstery.
- Often, chairs look perfect if their style uses the same fabric from which the curtains or curtains in the room are sewn.
The match looks harmonious.
Method number 3: sewing a cover with gathers in the corners
A clear advantage of sewing a cover is that this method is much cheaper than seat upholstery.
It is enough to purchase 2-2.5 m of fabric, correctly make a pattern and sew.
The fabric is selected on the principle of wear resistance, as products are constantly subjected to increased stress, especially in the dining room and in the kitchen.
To sew a cover on an old chair, follow these steps:
- First of all, you need a pattern. For measurements, you will need masking tape, paper or newspapers.
- Attach a large spread of the newspaper to one or another part of the product, mark the outlines of the furniture on paper, remove the excess with scissors.
- Prepare the second part, and attach it to the first, gluing it with masking tape. Having fully assembled the pattern, cut it in those places where the seams will be. Thus, you will get a more or less accurate pattern specifically for your product shape.
- Remember that you need to leave allowances for the seams and take into account the fractional orientation of the matter, especially if it will have a pattern in the form of stripes or large flowers. Pay special attention to the back. It happens that in order to recreate the exact bends, you will have to cut out a separate part along its side. If you do not have a goal to convey all the frills, it is enough to make wide allowances of 5-7 cm along the side cut of the back.
Important! It is better not to make the back cover very narrow, otherwise you simply will not be able to put it on the chair. Cut the back part wide or flared, then fold the excess into a pleat, and tie a beautiful bow at the back. If you like a "stretched" cover, then install a twisted zipper in one of the seams.
Method number 4: Decoupage of a chair with paper
Remaking old chairs with your own hands does not always require drastic changes. Sometimes a new chair will turn out from an old one if you mask minor defects, scratches and stains with an original fashionable print or beautiful patterns.
Decoupage will help you. Take:
- multilayer napkins with the desired print;
- PVA glue;
- a pair of brushes;
- scissors;
- matte clear lacquer;
- roller
To make original designer furniture out of old chairs, follow this algorithm:
- Clean furniture, paint as directed in Method #1.
- Separate the top layer of the patterned napkin, cut out the desired size fragment from it.
- If you want to change the whole decor of the old chair: from the back to the legs, then randomly tear the napkin into pieces of 10x10 cm.
- Lubricate the desired place of the future decor with plenty of PVA glue. Lay a cut-out piece of napkin on the desired piece of furniture, smooth it with a brush with the remnants of PVA, removing bubbles and smoothing out the wrinkles with a roller.
- The top layer of PVA should be as thin as possible. Leave it to dry for a day.
- At the end, cover the entire surface of the furniture with a transparent varnish in 3-4 layers, allowing each to dry.
As you can see, remodeling an old chair is not as problematic as it might seem at first glance.
Creative furniture decor solutions
- To give an old stool a touch of vintage, you can paint it pink, blue or cream. For painting, gold or silver paint is useful. On top of everything, apply craquelure varnish to the entire area. The effect of antiquity is created by small cracks from the varnish.
- An old stool will be saved by upholstery made of multi-colored straps. Weave them according to the “basket” principle, and fix them from below with self-tapping screws.
- Let your kids be creative acrylic paints. Cover the result with varnish. You will not only receive designer furniture, but also a future family heirloom.
Now you know how to restore an old chair, turning it into an exclusive little thing for mere pennies. If you have other modernization ideas and restoration experience, share with readers in the comments.
Video: Restoration of an old chair
